For enhanced safety, the front and second-row seat shoulder belts of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The BMW X5 xDrive45e doesn’t offer pretensioners for its second-row seat belts.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV are height-adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of driver and passenger heights. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages passengers to buckle up. The BMW X5 xDrive45e doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Outlander PHEV are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The X5 xDrive45e doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Outlander PHEV has a standard front seat center airbag, which deploys between the driver and front passenger, protecting them from injuries caused by striking each other in serious side impacts. The X5 xDrive45e doesn’t offer front seat center airbags.
Both the Outlander PHEV and the X5 xDrive45e have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front and rear side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning, driver alert monitors and available around view monitors.
For its performance in IIHS driver-side and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, updated side impact, headlight, and daytime pedestrian crash prevention testing, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Outlander PHEV the rating of “Top Safety Pick” for 2023, a rating granted to only 55 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The X5 xDrive45e last would have qualified as a “Top Safety Pick” in 2022.